What Am I Required to Do and Believe as a Catholic?

In short, Catholics must believe everything that the Church professes about what God has revealed to be true: the articles of faith. There are also precepts—basic requirements of religious practice—that the Church instructs believers to observe. And then there is the long list of pious beliefs and practices that, though not exactly required, are part of the rich fabric of Catholic life.  

For the teachings on articles of faith, the place to begin is with the creeds. This word comes from the Latin credo, which means “I believe.” The two most famous ancient creeds, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, profess the unique Christian teaching that God is one God in three persons (the doctrine of the Trinity), that the second person of the Trinity became man and lived on earth, and for the salvation of the world was crucified and died before rising from the dead. The creeds also profess that Jesus founded a Church that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic; tell us some things about the Virgin Mary and the saints; and declare that we all look forward to the resurrection of the body and eternal salvation. 

These creeds are formulations of the deposit of faith—the saving truths that God revealed to humanity and entrusted to the Church to guard and teach. They don’t exhaust Catholic doctrine, but they are important building blocks of it. Catholic teaching also includes doctrines that follow as organic developments of revealed truths, many of them formulated during points in history where the Church had to answer errors and disputes about how to interpret the deposit of faith. 

When it comes to moral teachings, too, the Church presents binding truths both explicitly revealed (such as those in the Ten Commandments) and defined according to what has been revealed (such as the prohibition of contraception). 

So the answer to this question is simple and also complicated. Fortunately, the teaching authority of the Church—the Magisterium—through its doctrinal and moral pronouncements, its teaching summaries (called catechisms), and the instruction of its bishops and pastors, is there to guide us. But it all begins with the foundation of the Creed: the recognition of who God revealed himself to be, what he has done for us, and how this changes the way we ought to live. 

The requirements for what Catholics must do—the baseline obligations for being a “practicing” Catholic “in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor” (CCC 2041)—are enumerated in the precepts or commandments of the Church (2042-43): 

1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation. 

1. You shall confess your sins at least once a year. 

1. You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least once during the Easter season. 

1. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church. 

1. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church. 

These are the basic requirements, but in no way are they alternatives to or substitutes for the need to live a life of virtue and charity, heeding Christ’s fundamental commands to love one another (John 13:34) and spread the good news (Matt. 28:19-20). This duty presents itself in a multitude of different ways in the lives of different Christians. 

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